As the world economic and population growth causes increased energy demand that is now exceeding the world's production capacity of oil and fossil fuels, attention is increasingly drawn to renewable energy resources such as solar power and wind turbines. Wind turbines have been in use for some time, particularly in remote and rural areas where electric supply may be limited or unreliable. With the increasing interest in renewable energy, wind turbine generators are being built in increasingly large numbers and in larger power generation sizes. Wind generation farms are being developed, particularly near coastal areas, in elevations such as the Rocky Mountains and in other areas where conditions are favorable for a substantially continuous supply of wind to power the operation of turbine generators.
A limitation of current wind turbine generators is that current technology limits manageable productive wind speeds to the range of about 13 to 18 miles per hour. Conventional wind turbine generators are optimized to generate power during low wind speeds and at a slow but constant level. This method works to generate power, but it is not the most efficient way to harness energy considering the sheer force that wind gusts can produce.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for a wind turbine generator that is designed to generate electrical power in a wide range of wind conditions including high wind speeds and gusts that provide more energy.